Redline (2010)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Redline is an incredible movie.The animation is absolutely gorgeous. This film is bursting with style, and the animation team behind it boasts that no CGI was used. Though the film was animated digitally, it was all drawn by hand by a real person. The visual designs are charming and wild, with a colorful cast of characters featuring humans and aliens alike.The music has an undeniable sense of energy, often with some kind of pumping bass line designed to get you in to the movie's kinetic rhythm. It matches the on-screen chaos very well.The story is simple: it's like other films about a crooked race driver with a heart of gold and his team's unfortunate connections to the criminal underworld, but it's presented with so much flair and irreverent personality that Redline stands out. Unfortunately, that leads to my one and only complaint: some story elements are kind of under-cooked.Redline is so busy showing you so much that it often forgets to follow up on some of what it establishes. Certain revelations are saved until far too late in the movie (past the point where they'd make sense), and other plot threads are ignored for most of the run time only to resurface at the last second. It feels like it needed just a tad more room to breathe, as too many plot elements are touch-and-go. But that also just contributes to the movie's breakneck sense of speed as it races to the finish line. Look at this! Look at that! Look what's over there! But also never stop moving forward. Kind of fitting, in that context.Redline is a guided tour through a galaxy of visual splendor, and it delivers in spades. Any given character could be the star of their own entire series, and it's a shame our stay in this wonderful universe couldn't be just a little longer.

In spite of the praise that has been heaped upon Redline, I was not actually expecting it to be that good. The movie's over stylized and exaggerated characters brought Yoshiaki Kawajiri (incidentally a mentor of sorts for the movie's director, Takeshi Koike) immediately to mind, and I have never appreciated Kawajirisan's work. Within 20 minutes of starting to watch Redline, though, all of my reservations were blown away. The movie, which seems to be at least partially based on Kawajiri's similar Running Man segment from Neo Tokyo, follows a car racer named "Sweet JP" as he competes in two large races, the Yellowline and then the Redline. The Redline race happens to be held on a planet that doesn't want it to be, so the Redline racers have to dodge not only each other's artillery, but also that of the entire planet's military. While the characters are mostly light on meaningful personality, and the story is little more complex than "he's in these two races", the movie turns out to be a flashy action ride that should not be missed. While on the hostile planet for the Redline race, the story does take an Akira-style turn for the bizarre, but with all the other weird and crazy things assaulting your senses throughout the movie, it doesn't seem as out of place as it otherwise might. Do yourself a favor and catch Redline on Bluray some evening and enjoy a ride that you won't soon forget.

Over-the-top action is taken to a whole new level in the anime film "Redline" but unfortunately that's not a compliment. "Sweet" JP (Takuya Kimura) is a fiercely determined driver who has just lost his chance of getting into a deadly racing competition known as "Redline." Though when two of the drivers decide to drop out, JP gets his chance to finally compete. This is ultimately how paper thin the storyline actually gets. Everything about this movie moves a mile a minute and does not seem to care about fleshing anything out (which ends up hurting the film when they throw a love interest into the mesh). The animation style, while starting off interesting, gets stale fast and by the end almost feels more like an elaborate motion comic. The majority of the action takes place in the second half of the movie and much like the rest of the movie comes and goes so quickly for anyone to actually feel completely involved. Some anime enthusiasts might enjoy "Redline" for the unique animation style and occasional quirks but for everyone else it's another potentially fun film that crashed and burned.

Quick capsule summary of Redline: It's an animated, intergalactic "Death Race 2000," on buffalo steroids and with a jalapeño up its a$$.An illegal and absurdly violent drag race occurs once every five years, each time on a different planet. This may be for reasons of secrecy, or just because the old planet is rendered unusable. The main hero, J.P., is a racer who tends to explode and wipe out before the finish, but feels destined to win the big one. Things go fast, crash into each other and go up like the Hindenburg.In this world, men are men; women are women; squishy purple aliens are purple and squishy; and everything is blown completely out of proportion. If you want to see what animation can do better than live film, Redline is a good start. Michael Bay and his lesser followers can use all the CG and shaky-cams they want, but no live-action movie will ever be able to whap the viewer in the face with unhinged chaos that buckles the frame and yet stays somehow comprehensible. It's been attempted, and has usually led to legendary failures like Speed Racer. A pack of nerdy Asians with paintbrushes do Hollywood like punks, and all the render farms in the world wilt and run barren.The movie opens with a race that is merely impossible, and introduces J.P., who almost wins it until a Mafia bomb takes out his front wheel. The crown goes to Sonoshee, his childhood crush and next best racer. They are just two of the weird characters who qualify for the ultimate landscape-altering contest. This year, the Redline race committee feels that equipping the cars with rockets and grenades doesn't make for nearly enough mayhem, and decides to hold the race on Roboworld – a planet run by Nazi cyborg generals who are willing to do absolutely anything to avoid the honor. Roboworld appears completely barren except for some of the most destructive weaponry in the known universe, and by golly, is the government ever determined to use it all.The movie would be hilarious without even trying for humor, simply because it's so preposterous; however, it does try in its odd way, and pulls it off. The base camp for the final race lies on a refugee world. The place is just as anarchic and badly-managed as one would expect; upon arrival, JP is accosted by a gang of knee-tall aliens who look like Tweety's sketchy, mutated fugee cousins. He runs into inconceivably bad service at the money-changing window, and gets ripped off in an ungodly way while buying cigarettes. Complaints don't help.Soon, the tobacco troubles are forgotten, as it's time for the big race. Words can't describe it, so you'll have to see it for yourself. If you need any further motivation, it somehow involves a "bio-weapon" called Funky Boy that could give Akira himself a couple of pointers in indiscriminate destruction.Redline is pure lizard-brain pleasure. The remarkable thing is that, at the same time, it isn't offensively and painfully stupid like, say, Armageddon. If you like cars, spaceships, guns and explosions, watch it as soon as you can.